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A Mercy

Toni Morrison

Why we're reading this: THE HAUNTED AND THE HOLY
Marilyn Sanders Mobley

Review of A Mercy
By Toni Morrison
Alfred A. Knopf

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[close] THE HAUNTED AND THE HOLY
Marilyn Sanders Mobley

Review of A Mercy
By Toni Morrison
Alfred A. Knopf

Readers familiar with the fiction of Toni Morrison will not be surprised that her latest novel returns to the subject of slavery, one she has already mined with exquisite power. Though the psychological implications of enslavement are as much on her mind as they were in her Pulitzer Prize-winning Beloved, in A Mercy she probes the machine of slavery itself— the routine acts of closing deals and settling debts by buying or selling human beings, in this instance by an Anglo-Dutch trader named Jacob Vaark, who had promised himself he would never trade in human flesh.

A Mercy seems to confirm the author’s belief that the past is actually more infinite than the future. Set in the 1680s, the novel opens in medias res with the words, “Don’t be afraid,” but given the dreamlike sequences in which characters move between life and death and from sea to land—like the enslaved on ships between continents— the reader is hard-pressed to find footing in time and space. What we do know is that the vagaries of a slave economy force a mother to make a difficult choice for her daughter, Florens, and that Jacob Vaark’s death leaves his plantation in disarray. The disarray is not so much because his widow, Mistress Rebekka, is stricken with smallpox and her servants are unable to cope, but because a female-headed household is perceived as both dangerous and vulnerable to male power. Indeed, the plague of smallpox is mere backdrop to the issues Morrison explores in this novel and the characters she introduces: Florens, whose literacy makes her a valuable commodity; Sorrow, whose time at sea on a ghost ship and having been dragged to land by whales made her wilder than most female slaves; and Lina, who, despite efforts to Christianize her, has cobbled together a spirituality comprised of her Native American roots, European medicine and scripture to create a “way to be in the world.”

Deftly rising above cliché, Morrison narrates the ways in which race, gender and class continue to color our reading of slavery. She peers beneath the surface of the machine to reveal its murky underpinnings in religious disputes. She reminds us that although grace is unmerited favor and that a mercy is an unmitigated blessing, it is no easy feat to understand or even read about the consequences of either, whether in the context of slavery or in the context of Florens and the maternal decision intended to save her. Though deceptively short, Morrison’s ninth novel is no easy read, and that’s a familiar but important truism about her fiction. To follow her text requires concentration, but it’s well worth the effort to understand how women and men who were not supposed to survive the trauma of their lives did and lived to tell it.

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MARILYN SANDERS MOBLEY is provost at Bennett College for Women, a Toni Morrison scholar and an advisory
board member of the Toni Morrison Society.

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Shelves: 2008-fall-reviews

THE HAUNTED AND THE HOLY
Marilyn Sanders Mobley

Review of A Mercy
By Toni Morrison
Alfred A. Knopf

Readers familiar with the fiction of Toni Morrison will not be surprised that her latest novel returns to the subject of slavery, one she has already mined with exquisite power. Though the psychological implications of enslavement are as much on her mind as they were in her Pulitzer Prize-winning Beloved, in A Mercy she probes the machine of slavery itself— the routine acts of closing deals and settling THE HAUNTED AND THE HOLY
Marilyn Sanders Mobley

Review of A Mercy
By Toni Morrison
Alfred A. Knopf

Readers familiar with the fiction of Toni Morrison will not be surprised that her latest novel returns to the subject of slavery, one she has already mined with exquisite power. Though the psychological implications of enslavement are as much on her mind as they were in her Pulitzer Prize-winning Beloved, in A Mercy she probes the machine of slavery itself— the routine acts of closing deals and settling debts by buying or selling human beings, in this instance by an Anglo-Dutch trader named Jacob Vaark, who had promised himself he would never trade in human flesh.

A Mercy seems to confirm the author’s belief that the past is actually more infinite than the future. Set in the 1680s, the novel opens in medias res with the words, “Don’t be afraid,” but given the dreamlike sequences in which characters move between life and death and from sea to land—like the enslaved on ships between continents— the reader is hard-pressed to find footing in time and space. What we do know is that the vagaries of a slave economy force a mother to make a difficult choice for her daughter, Florens, and that Jacob Vaark’s death leaves his plantation in disarray. The disarray is not so much because his widow, Mistress Rebekka, is stricken with smallpox and her servants are unable to cope, but because a female-headed household is perceived as both dangerous and vulnerable to male power. Indeed, the plague of smallpox is mere backdrop to the issues Morrison explores in this novel and the characters she introduces: Florens, whose literacy makes her a valuable commodity; Sorrow, whose time at sea on a ghost ship and having been dragged to land by whales made her wilder than most female slaves; and Lina, who, despite efforts to Christianize her, has cobbled together a spirituality comprised of her Native American roots, European medicine and scripture to create a “way to be in the world.”

Deftly rising above cliché, Morrison narrates the ways in which race, gender and class continue to color our reading of slavery. She peers beneath the surface of the machine to reveal its murky underpinnings in religious disputes. She reminds us that although grace is unmerited favor and that a mercy is an unmitigated blessing, it is no easy feat to understand or even read about the consequences of either, whether in the context of slavery or in the context of Florens and the maternal decision intended to save her. Though deceptively short, Morrison’s ninth novel is no easy read, and that’s a familiar but important truism about her fiction. To follow her text requires concentration, but it’s well worth the effort to understand how women and men who were not supposed to survive the trauma of their lives did and lived to tell it.

---
MARILYN SANDERS MOBLEY is provost at Bennett College for Women, a Toni Morrison scholar and an advisory
board member of the Toni Morrison Society.
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Jan 17, 2012 Kelly rated it really liked it

This book is short at 167 pages but that is beneficial since it often requires rereading of passages. This is due to the narrator switching several times and the reader not always being sure of who is doing the talking. Despite this (sometimes frustrating) aspect, this book is beautifully written. It is like a puzzle when put together which makes the work more worthwhile. Morrison is so eloquent and does such a good job of wrapping the whole story together in the end. Often in this work her writ ...more

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Nov 30, 2008 Colette rated it it was amazing

I'm always in awe of how Toni Morrison can take pieces from the past and bring them to life. Her stories seem to offer an explanation of why one should care about history, even though that's not Morrison's primary intent. Morrison creates characters that exist without coming off as props. "A Mercy" shows Colonial America, but it's not a diorama.

I haven't read all of Morrison's novels, but through those that I have read, including this one, I have a soundtrack of minor key music playing in the ba ...more

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Jan 12, 2009 Elevate Difference rated it it was amazing

The moment I finished A Mercy, I turned back to the first page to start reading it again. This is the mark of a truly good book. It is a practice only undertaken for the rarest of books–those that you wish would not end, that you cannot wait to read again, and that have all sorts of tiny little details and secrets to ferret out on third, fourth, and yes, even fifth readings. Many of Toni Morrison’s books fall into this category, and A Mercy is no exception.

Set in and around 1690, the novel focus The moment I finished A Mercy, I turned back to the first page to start reading it again. This is the mark of a truly good book. It is a practice only undertaken for the rarest of books–those that you wish would not end, that you cannot wait to read again, and that have all sorts of tiny little details and secrets to ferret out on third, fourth, and yes, even fifth readings. Many of Toni Morrison’s books fall into this category, and A Mercy is no exception.

Set in and around 1690, the novel focuses mainly on four females: Florens, Lina, Sorrow, and Mistress. Two of the characters are Black, one is Native American, and one is White. All of them are oppressed by their femaleness, albeit in different ways. The attention Morrison pays to the complexities of privilege and oppression, both imposed by others and imposed by the self, is stunning and illuminating.

The content of the novel is complex and shifting, as is the form. In both the “what” of the novel and the “how,” we as readers are not given a single viewpoint, a guiding grand narrative, nor a main character on which to latch our hopes on. Rather, the focus on different characters waxes and wanes, as do our sympathies.

While the four females at the center of the novel are neither lionized nor condemned, systems of oppression certainly are. The novel offers an indictment of slavery, colonialism, religious dogma, and patriarchy that never allows one category—rape, sex, gender, class, belief—to trump another. This intersectional framework allows Morrison to explore a broad array of social injustices that coalesce at this specific historical juncture in US history: the slave trade, the forced assimilation/annihilation Native Americans, religious indoctrination, the patriarchal imperialist mindset, the rise of capitalism, and deification of ownership. Casting such a broad net allows for a novel that is not a singular story, but a multi-voiced dialogic narrative. As such, it is hard to summarize the plot as content is not what drives the text. There is a plot—a convoluted one—but the novel focuses more on "how" and "why" than on "what."

The "mercy" referred to in the title is most closely linked with Morrison’s earlier novel Beloved. As in that text, this novel circulates around mother/daughter bond and how slavery forces the severing of such bonds. However, A Mercy has a far less linear and more experimental feel. It is more poetic, more of a meditation on themes than a story-driven narrative.

As is usually the case with Morrison’s work, the sentences sing. She can write a sentence like no one else, a sentence so beautiful that it can be read repeatedly to reveal new twists, deeper meanings, and hidden nuances. Here is hoping Morrison will have mercy on her readers and continue to write novels such as these—novels that can be read again and again.

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Mar 12, 2009 Kristen rated it it was ok

Shelves: kindle-read, library-book

I thought I'd love this book and was surprised not to. The time period and subject matter promised to be interesting -- the 1680s in the land that would one day be VA and MD, with a cast of characters that included a slave from Africa via Barbados, her daughter -- born into slavery and given up by her mother for a life she hoped would be better, a native American woman, a free African man, indentured servants, European settlers of various religious persuasions. But I felt the character developme ...more

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Oct 03, 2009 Laura (booksnob) rated it it was amazing

Shelves: book-club, literature, 2009

This first Toni Morrison book that I have loved and understood. Well understood may be not be entirely correct since Morrison writing is somewhat difficult for me at times. Nonetheless, I would recommend this book to an average reader, it was entertaining, historically accurate and thought provoking. I couldn't put it down. I may need to go back and reread some of her other books I read in my youth. Or maybe not, I don't think I could read the Bluest Eye again.
Looking forward to discussing this ...more

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Dec 26, 2008 Ileana is currently reading it

I've just started A Mercy. I heard Morrison read an excerpt of it recently in New York. Perhaps I'll add it to the course on Morrison I teach in the spring to juniors . . . ...more

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Aug 27, 2009 Morgan rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Usually listening to audiobooks puts me to sleep, but listening to Morrison read her own text worked for me. The novel felt too short; I wanted to know more about these characters.

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Jun 23, 2009 Nikita T. Mitchell rated it did not like it

Shelves: started-unfinished

Long gone (ok only recently) are the days when I read a book to the end, for better or for worse, before judging it. There are just too many good ones out there... Sorry Ms. Morrison. Next!

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